The present invention relates to collectable memorabilia. More particularly, the invention relates to collectable trading cards.
Trading cards are very popular collectable items for the sports and entertainment industries. Trading cards are often produced for baseball, hockey, basketball, football, soccer, golf, auto racing, comic characters, entertainers, and the like. A typical trading card has a photograph or image of a personality or character on a first side of the trading card, and related statistics, biographical information, or the like on the reverse side.
Collecting trading cards has been an American hobby for over 100 years. For many, the thrill of collecting trading cards is also financially rewarding. The value of a trading card may vary greatly, depending on the rareness and condition of the trading card. Rare, old cards can be extremely valuable. For example, an original Honus Wagner trading card in good condition from the 1909 through 1911 T206 Tobacco Set was recently sold at auctioned for over $1 million.
Due to their value, trading cards have become a significant “for profit” business. A large service industry has arisen around trading cards, offering services such as preserving and grading cards. The grading process includes determining a trading card's overall condition. Criteria used in evaluating condition typically include image centering, card cut, corner conditions, edging, surface condition, such as scratches or stains, post-production trimming, creases or folds in the card, and the like. To preserve the trading card's condition, it is often put in a “slab.” “Slabbing” a the term used to describe the process of encapsulating a card after its condition has been determined. Typically, a trading card is sonically sealed in a hard acrylic case and assigned a bar code for registration purposes.
Collectors and enthusiasts also purchase game, or event, specific memorabilia, such as game-used: bats, balls, jerseys, uniforms, flags, artificial turf, stadium equipment, hockey sticks, pucks, tickets, gloves, auto part, instruments, and the like. Dealers sell these items at high costs to the consumer, thereby limiting the availability of such whole memorabilia to the average collector or enthusiast. Accordingly, some dealers divide up the whole memorabilia and sell individual pieces of such memorabilia. For example, a dealer may cut up a game used bat to sell individual miniature bats.
Gluck discloses a memorabilia package in U.S. Pat. No. 6,142,532. The disclosed memorabilia card consists of a photograph with a piece of game, or event, memorabilia adhered to the surface of the photograph. The piece of memorabilia is mounted and positioned on the photograph where he image of the memorabilia appears in the photograph. For example, a piece of memorabilia such as a miniature bat manufactured from a game-used bat, would be mounted on a photograph of a batter in the location where the image of the bat would normally appear in the photograph. Unfortunately, mounting a piece of memorabilia to the memorabilia card diminishes any “collector's” value the card has, in and or itself. Thus, the value of the package is typically limited to the value of the specific piece of memorabilia itself.
It is desirable to provide collectors with a collection case that enhances the combined value of its individual components. Additionally, the desired collection case would be protected from damage.